Detroit’s NFL team still starts with an L.
For once Sunday, it didn’t end with one.
The Lions snapped the second-longest losing streak in league history, winning for the first time in 20 tries with a 19-14 victory over the Redskins.
The good people of Detroit might not believe it — the game was blacked out on TV and witnessed live by the team’s smallest crowd in 20 years (40,896) — but their Lions finally have something to show in the left-hand column.
“No team has been in this situation before,” center Dominic Raiola said. “No one has gone 0-16 and then had to try to win a game the next year.”
On the same day Detroit reappeared on the radar, there were plenty of other noteworthy story lines:
*In the only matchup between undefeated teams, Brett Favre rallied the Vikings to a 27-24 victory over the 49ers, throwing a can’t-believe-I-just-saw-that 32-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with 2 seconds left.
*The old Titans — the New York Jets — beat the new ones with a 24-17 victory over Tennessee, making the Jets’ Mark Sanchez the first rookie quarterback in league history to win his first three games.
*In the most lopsided game of the day (and maybe the season), the New York Giants crushed the Buccaneers 24-0, denying the home team a first down until midway through the third quarter. The Buccaneers were 86’d in the truest sense, rolling up just 86 yards to the Giants’ 397.
“They beat us down,” said Raheem Morris, first-year coach of the Buccaneers. “We were beat by a grown-man team, a team we want to be like one day. They came in here and took it to us. Outmanned us, outgunned us … it wasn’t even close.”
*Michael Vick made his return after a forced hiatus that lasted 1,001 days. He backed up the Eagles’ Kevin Kolb in a 34-14 thrashing of the Chiefs, taking the field for 11 snaps. He had a run for 7 yards and two incomplete passes.
“It’s a different role, but it is what it is,” Vick said. “It was a small look. We have so much in store for the future.”
More important for the Eagles, Kolb has thrown for 718 yards in two games.
*The Bengals, who had lost to the Steelers in Cincinnati eight consecutive times, stunned the defending Super Bowl champions 23-20.
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Nothing matches the futility the Lions have known. By beating Washington, they collected their first victory since December 2007.
After that loss, Jim Zorn’s clock as Redskins coach is rapidly winding down. This could be the final straw for him. His future was in question coming into the season, and the Redskins were coming off an uninspired 9-7 home victory over the sad St.Louis Rams.
Don’t be surprised if Redskins owner Daniel Snyder shells out the cash for Mike Shanahan or Bill Cowher, in keeping with his reputation for deep pockets and shallow patience.
“It don’t matter if Joe Gibbs was here or any All-Star coach,” defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth said, “(critics are)still going to point fingers.”
Northern explosion? The typical honeymoon period between Terrell Owens and his new team lasts at least a year. That was the case before things went south in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas.
It will be interesting to see if the T.O. grace period lasts that long in Buffalo, where Owens went without a catch Sunday for the first time in 185 games.
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